This week's Big Question is all about video game music we love. Whether it's an original score or just a collection of quality licensed music, these are some of the video games that have made the biggest sonic impact on us over the years. (And there's actually a Sonic game in here too, so that works on multiple levels.) Now, please, lend us your ears.

Related: What Game Do You Wish More People Would Play?

Silent Hill 2

Andy Kelly, Features Editor

For me the measure of a good soundtrack is if I find myself listening to it outside of the game. Ridge Racer Type 4, We Love Katamari, Grim Fandango, Final Fantasy 8, and Fez all fall into that category, but there's one that rises above them all, and that is Akira Yamaoka's sensational Silent Hill 2 soundtrack. It's an incredible, eclectic mix of melancholy ambience, mellow trip-hop beats, soft rock, and screeching industrial Hell music—and I've been listening to it regularly for years. Tracks like White Noiz, A World in Madness, Forest, Heaven's Night, and Alone in the Town perfectly capture the distinctive, uncanny atmosphere of the game, and transport me back to that cursed town. Akira Yamaoka is one of gaming's most talented composers, and this is by far his greatest work.

Brutal Legend

James Troughton, News / Photo Editor

Gathering up an army of metalheads while you tear apart demons with Jack Black and his trusty guitar sounds like every teenager’s fantasy, but it’s real. And not only is it real, it’s jam-packed full of music from Motley Crue, KMFDM, Ozzy Osbourne, Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, and even Black’s own band, Tenacious D. To say it has a stacked soundtrack would be an understatement - it’s a collection of some of the best metal bands out there in one of the most metal games out there. Driving through hordes of enemies while blasting Blitzkrieg? It doesn’t get much better.

Final Fantasy 14

Meg Pelliccio, Lead Guides Editor

I struggle to pick favourites because I like too many things, so I’ve cheated by choosing Final Fantasy 14. Not only does it have a banging original soundtrack, but it also regularly adds new soundtracks as additional content launches and has its fair share of remix songs from previous Final Fantasy games. You can’t deny that Nobuo Uematsu is a master composer and his work speaks for itself. If I had to pick just one song that I really love, it would have to be Answers. This song was the title screen music for A Realm Reborn and was made even more poignant in the latest expansion, Endwalker, where Answers was reprised and players could finally understand the full weight of the lyrics.

Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2

Stacey Henley, Editor-in-Chief

I don’t like video game music, mostly because it’s bad. Bleep bleep bloop. Nah. Apologies to everyone else here, and presumably everyone else who clicked to read about great video game music, but I never listen to video game music outside of video games, and I don’t really trust anyone who does. What I do like though is actual music, which is why the THPS games have always appealed to me. Any single one of the series’ soundtracks deserves to be here, but 1+2 marries two of the best together, taking bands like A Tribe Called Quest, Fu Manchu, Goldfinger, Rage Against The Machine, and Papa Roach, while introducing new artists that fit in seamlessly with the THPS sound like Machine Gun Kelly and Skepta. It’s not video game music, it’s just music, and that makes it the best video game music. Shame Activision Blizzard are such bellends.

Transistor And MotorStorm: Pacific Rift

Issy van der Velde, News Editor

I’m going to cheat and pick two, because I’m indecisive and I can. The best licensed soundtrack has to be MotorStorm: Pacific Rift. As well as the best race tracks, it also has the best music tracks.Listening to Tarantula or Sulfur while tearing up the jungle in a Mudplugger, sending bikers flying, and catching sick air over waterfalls or down vast canyons is a hard feeling to beat. The best original soundtrack is in Transistor, without a doubt. She Shines is an ode to Red’s city of Cloudbank, and my favourite original song in the game. The singer, Ashley Barrett, also hummed the entire soundtrack so that you can hit a button and listen to the haunting echoes of Red’s stolen voice along with Darren Korb’s beautiful instrumentals whenever you want. It’s magical.

Grand Theft Auto 3

Lu-Hai Liang, News Editor

Look, I agree that Vice City has infinitely superior music. I mean who’s going to argue against Atomic, Africa, Billie Jean, Automatic, Owner of a Lonely Heart, among the many other bangers that featured in the 80s-set follow-up? But I am here to submit that GTA 3 has the better soundtrack. The banter on Chatterbox remains some of the most screwball dialogue ever written. I still remember many of the jokes and non sequiturs (a caller rings up to complain about the English: “they have the nerve to call crackers ‘biscuits’ and they say ‘ah-lew-min-u-em’ instead of a-lu-min-um’ – what’s up with that?!”). Meanwhile, flying over a Stunt Jump, in slow-mo, as O Mio Babbino Caro slid out of the TV remains an unimpeachable moment in video games.

Sayonara Wild Hearts

Ben Sledge, Features Editor

What other game has the gumption to kick off with a synthpop cover of Clair de Lune? Somehow Daniel Olsén’s soundtrack just gets better from there, with title track Sayonara Wild Heart and Begin Again being the hit singles of what is essentially an interactive pop album. The rhythm-based arcade action game forces you to interact with the music in every level, jumping over obstacles, skating through the air, or engaging in motorcycle-borne sword fights in time with the banging pop beats. The tunes also tell the story of our broken hearted protagonist as much as the gameplay, the two working in tandem in a way only the likes of Guitar Hero can replicate. This may be the highest praise I can give a video game, but Sayonara Wild Hearts is the closest to Eurovision the medium has ever been.

Halo

Amanda Hurych, Evergreen Content Lead

If Issy can pick two games, I can pick a whole series, right? I've loved Halo for years at this point, and part of the reason why is thanks to the music. From the mellow tones of Deference for Darkness to the pumped-up jam that is the Mjolnir Mix, Halo has rarely disappointed me when it comes to the melodies it gifts my eardrums. I listen to One Final Effort during particularly rough days at work. Truth and Reconciliation Suite is basically my lo-fi hip hop when I want to stare at the ceiling for a bit. I can go on about all the tracks across the series that I enjoy, but I’m acutely aware this is a subjective answer. These tracks won’t be for everyone, and the only way to find out if they’re for you is to give them a listen. The Halo soundtrack is a musical score I can't imagine my life without. Martin O'Donnell crafted an auditory landscape I can lose myself in every day, and to say that I love it feels like an understatement. I live it.

Sonic Unleashed

Joe Parlock, TCG Specialist

No matter what you think about Sonic as a franchise, the one thing that’s been consistent about it from the very beginning is that its music absolutely slaps. The high point for me was definitely in 2008’s Sonic Unleashed, which followed Sonic as he ran around the world in fantastically fast-paced 3D stages, followed by absolutely nothing else, especially not god-awful beat ‘em stages. The soundtrack is similarly global in nature, from the jazzy tunes of Empire City to the heavy percussion of Mazuri and the guitars of Spagonia. They’re fast, energetic, and provide character to a game everyone would’ve otherwise forgotten about. It’s just a shame those playing the PS2 and Wii version of the game never got to hear the banger that is Savannah Citadel’s daytime theme.

Nier: Automata

Justin Reeve, News Editor

I’m always surprised to learn that some people still haven’t played Nier: Automata because the game is absolutely fantastic. The story is all about love and loss, pain and regret. The art style is every bit as pensive as it is plaintive. The best part is that all of this finds a perfect reflection in the soundtrack. I don’t quite know how best to describe the music in Nier: Automata, so I’m just going to call it wistful and meditative. Something about it just makes you feel profoundly melancholic. While the entire soundtrack is truly phenomenal, the single best track in my personal opinion is Weight of the World. The composer behind the song, Keiichi Okabe, managed to make a masterpiece. You should really give this one a listen.

Risk of Rain 2

Damien Lykins, Evergreen Content Lead

I was tempted to go with the inescapably adrenaline-pumping soundtracks accompanying Doom 2016 and Eternal, but Risk of Rain 2's infectiously groovy tracks absolutely have to take the cake here. Chris Christodolou's work is practically a part of the game's identity — the way it gels with RoR2's endless roguelike loop is ineffable. Fancy word, I know, but I can't find anything that better articulates what I'm shooting for here. Even outside of the game, these are just good songs standing on their own. "The Rain Formerly Known as Purple" is a standout that I could likely listen to on repeat ad nauseum, but "…con lentitud poderosa" needs a special mention all its own. This is the power ballad that power ballads should aspire to be, and the fact that it accompanies the game's "final level" so-to-speak is all too perfect. The weight and grandiosity of it just hits right at the climactic conclusion of a run, and I struggle to think of many songs that have such a propensity to immediately fill me with so many emotions in general, let alone when we're talking about video game OSTs in a vacuum. It's good. Seriously, listen to it. It's good.

Death Stranding

George Foster, Lead News Editor

It's a good thing that narrowing this choice down is so difficult. Instantly I can't help but think about games like Kingdom Hearts 2, Persona 5, Psychonauts, and Spelunky for having banger original soundtracks that are constantly fuelling my writing. Then there are the games like Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, Saints Row 2, and GTA 5 that expertly use licensed music and introduced players to brand new songs they might not have heard before.

How about smushing those two ideals together and having a game with the best use of licensed music and an epic set of original tunes? That's Death Stranding for you. Whether it's those moments at the end of a long journey that feature Low Roar playing in the background, or the expert use of Ludvig Forssell's original music in cutscenes, Death Stranding's music is a triumph.

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What's The Worst Game You Love?